Woodworm vs termites: how to tell them apart and treat each one

Found a small pile of powder under a wooden wardrobe, or a thin line of mud running up the wall next to a door frame? Both point to an insect that eats wood, but not the same insect, and the treatment that stops one does nothing to the other. The difference shows in the trace each one leaves behind, and that’s the first thing our field team at Elalmanya Biology looks at when someone sends us a photo of damaged wood.

The difference between woodworm, termites and booklice

Woodworm is a beetle larva that lives inside dry wood and leaves small round holes and powder. Termites, which many people in Egypt call white ants, live in a colony in the soil, reach wood through mud tubes and leave it hollow with mud inside. Booklice are tiny insects that eat mold, not the wood itself.

And the winged insects that suddenly pour out of a crack in the wall are usually ordinary ants in their flight season, though you need to check.

Insect	Clearest sign	Where you find it	Does it eat wood?	Where treatment starts
Woodworm	Small round holes with powder beneath	Wardrobes, china cabinets, parquet, wooden ceilings, antiques	Yes, the larva eats it from the inside	The infested piece itself
Termites that come from the soil	Mud tubes about as wide as a pencil, hollow wood with mud inside	Door frames, thresholds, parquet close to the floor	Yes, along the grain	The soil around the building
Booklice	Tiny pale specks moving on shelves and books	Damp spots, books, cardboard boxes, built-in cupboards	No, they eat mold	Lowering the humidity
Flying ants	A swarm of winged insects coming out all at once	Near windows, balconies and cracks	Ordinary ants don’t	Identifying the insect first

There’s another kind of termite that lives entirely inside dry wood, in furniture or in wood high up in the building, without ever reaching the soil. It doesn’t build mud tubes. Instead it pushes its droppings out through small openings in the wood surface, so you find a little pile of dry pellets underneath. The University of California describes each pellet as having 6 flattened sides running lengthwise, and those pellets are the first clue. Photograph them up close with your phone and compare them with woodworm powder, which looks like flour, and the difference is obvious.

There’s a third mix-up we hear a lot: “I have bed bugs in the wood.” Bed bugs do hide in the cracks of wooden bed frames and behind picture frames, but they feed on blood and don’t eat wood. Their signs are bites at night and black spots on the sheet, not powder. If that sounds like your problem, read our guide to getting rid of bed bugs.

Signs of woodworm: how do you know it’s still active?

The clearest sign of woodworm is small round holes in the surface of the wood with a little pile of powder under or beside them. Holes alone don’t settle it, though, because the infestation may have ended years ago. The question that matters is whether the powder is fresh or old.

These holes are not where the woodworm got in. The larva spends most of its life inside the wood, boring narrow, winding tunnels under the surface, and when it turns into a beetle it chews its way out and leaves the hole behind. So by the time you see the first hole, the infestation has been going on for months or years. The University of Kentucky and University of California fact sheets on wood-boring beetles put the time from egg to emerging beetle at anything from a few months to 5 years, depending on the species and the condition of the wood.

The powder tells you the type

• Very fine powder, like flour or talcum powder, forming a small pile under the hole. This is the powderpost beetle (lyctid), which attacks only hardwoods, such as the wood in furniture and parquet.
• Slightly coarser powder that feels gritty when you rub it between your fingers. This is the furniture or deathwatch beetle (anobiid), the type that likes damp wood and also attacks softwood, ceilings and beams.
• Powder packed into the holes themselves that doesn’t fall out easily. This is a third type, the false powderpost beetle (bostrichid), which likes new wood that still has starch and moisture in it.

Hole size and the ballpoint pen test

The fine-powder type leaves a hole the size of a pinhead. The damp-loving type makes holes of about 1.5 to 3 mm, and the third type can reach 6 mm. The University of California suggests a simple test with a ballpoint pen: put the tip of the pen into the hole. If only the tip goes in, it’s probably the type that leaves flour-like powder. If the tip and part of the cone behind it go in, it’s probably the damp-loving type. If the whole point slides in easily, you’re looking at the third type.

A simple test: is the woodworm still active?

Fresh powder is pale, like sawdust from a fresh cut, while old powder is yellowish, caked or covered in dust. A fresh hole has clean edges and looks light inside; an old one has darkened like the rest of the wood. To be sure:

1. Vacuum all the powder off the piece and off the floor beneath it.
2. Mark every existing hole with a marker pen, or cover it with a strip of paper masking tape.
3. Come back after a few weeks. If you find fresh powder or a hole without a mark, the woodworm is still active inside the piece.

The University of Kentucky recommends doing this check in spring or summer, when most of the beetles emerge. If you do it in the middle of winter and find nothing new, don’t take that as the final answer.

Other signs

You may find small reddish-brown to dark beetles on the window sill or near a lamp, because most of them move about at night and some are drawn to light. In an old, heavy infestation, the edges of the wood turn brittle and crumble when you press them with a fingernail.

Signs of termites in the house

The clearest signs of termites are thin mud tubes on a wall or the foundation, winged insects swarming indoors on a warm day and leaving their wings by the window, and wood that sounds hollow when tapped. You rarely see the termites themselves, because they live in the soil, inside the wood and inside those tubes.

Mud tubes

These are lines of mud about as wide as a pencil, sometimes wider, running up from the ground over the foundation, along the bottom of a wall or beside a door frame. Termites build them so they can travel under cover between the colony in the soil and the wood. If you break off a small piece and find tiny creamy-white insects, the infestation is active. An empty tube doesn’t mean it’s over, because termites sometimes abandon sections of their tubes and move to another part of the building.

Flying termites

In spring, usually on a warm day after rain, a swarm of winged insects leaves the colony to start new ones. They’re drawn to light, so they gather near windows and doors, and then they shed their wings. Clear wings scattered on a window sill are one of the most obvious signs. According to the University of Kentucky, swarmers inside the house almost always mean an infestation that needs treatment. If you see them coming out of a tree stump or a woodpile in the garden, though, that alone doesn’t prove the house is infested.

These flying insects don’t eat wood, and indoors they live about one day. Sweep or vacuum them up, but keep a few insects or a few wings in a small bag so they can be identified. This is what people in Alexandria saw in April 2022, when residents in many parts of the governorate complained about swarms of winged termites and the Ministry of Agriculture said it was following the situation.

Hollow wood

Termites eat wood along the grain and leave the outer surface almost intact, so the wood looks fine while it’s hollow inside. Tap the door frame, the leg of a built-in wardrobe or the parquet close to the floor. If it sounds hollow, press it with the tip of an ordinary screwdriver, as the US Environmental Protection Agency suggests. If the screwdriver goes in easily, that wood needs an inspection. Inside infested wood you’ll find crumbs of dried mud stuck in the tunnels, and that’s the sign that sets it apart from woodworm.

Signs many people miss

• Small holes in plaster or drywall with grains of mud around them.
• Wallpaper or paint that ripples or sags in one spot.
• Dark or swollen wood in a door threshold or at the base of a cupboard.

An infestation can go on for years without an obvious sign. The same fact sheet admits that even a professional inspector can miss one hidden behind paneling or under a floor.

Booklice and flying ants: not every insect in wood eats it

Booklice don’t eat wood. They are tiny insects that feed on the mold and fungi growing on wood, paper and cardboard in damp places, so finding them means there’s too much moisture in the room. It doesn’t mean your wardrobe is being eaten.

They are under 1.5 mm long, colored anywhere from translucent white to gray to light brown, and most indoor species have no wings. You see them as tiny specks moving fast across a bookshelf, inside a built-in cupboard against a wall with a leak, or in cardboard boxes stored in the storage loft. A female lays 50 to 60 eggs during the warm summer months, and the cycle from egg to adult takes 30 to 60 days, so numbers can climb quickly in a damp room.

The University of Florida reference makes it clear that these insects are not parasites: they don’t bite people or animals. The harm they do is to books, paper and stored food once their numbers grow, and Utah State University treats their presence as a sign of a moisture problem. Dealing with them is almost entirely about humidity:

• Bring the humidity in the room below 50%, with ventilation or a dehumidifier.
• Fix the leak or the dripping pipe inside the wall.
• Throw out moldy books and boxes, and vacuum the shelves.
• Keep dry food in airtight containers.

The same Florida reference says a pesticide is usually unnecessary once the humidity drops. If you spray without fixing the damp, the insects come back, because whatever brought them in is still there.

Flying ants: ordinary ants or termites?

Ordinary ants also fly in certain seasons to start new colonies, and that confuses a lot of people, since both can swarm at the same time of year. The difference is easy to see when you look at the insect up close:

Feature	Flying termite	Flying ant
Waist	Broad, no waist	Narrow and pinched
Antennae	Straight	Bent at an angle, like an elbow
Wings	All four the same size	Front pair longer than the back pair

If it turns out to be an ordinary ant, that’s a different problem, and the treatment starts in the kitchen and along the ant trail. The details are on our ant control page. If it’s a termite, keep reading.

Why do woodworm and termites show up in the house?

Woodworm usually comes into the house already inside the wood, while termites come up from the soil when they find wood and moisture close by. Damp helps both of them, in different ways. Once you know which route each one takes, you know where to look first.

Woodworm: the wood brings it in

According to the University of Kentucky, almost every infestation of the fine-powder type starts with wood that already had eggs or larvae in it before it came into the house. So the source is usually one of these:

• Used furniture or an antique, like a chair from the Friday market or a china cabinet from an old house, especially if it sat in a garage or a storeroom for a while.
• Timber that was stored somewhere infested before the carpenter worked with it.
• A picture frame, a wicker basket or a piece of bamboo.

Firewood brought into the house can carry other beetles that live in trees, but according to the University of California these usually don’t attack furniture or the wood of the building.

Each type has the wood it prefers. The fine-powder type attacks only hardwoods such as oak, walnut and mahogany, and bamboo too, and it needs wood that contains starch. That’s why it prefers new wood, why its infestation dies out as the wood ages, and why you find it in new parquet or a china cabinet that was only just made.

The damp-loving type is a different story. It attacks both hardwood and softwood, and wood of any age, but its larva needs wood moisture between 13% and 30% to finish developing. Wood with less than 14% moisture in spring and summer usually doesn’t suit it, and its infestations rarely show up in buildings less than 10 years old. In an Egyptian home, that means the wooden ceiling of an old house under a leaking roof, a closed storage loft with no ventilation, a wardrobe standing against the bathroom wall, and the woodwork on the ground floor and in the basement.

Termites: moisture and wood close to the ground

Termites that live in the soil need moisture, and they reach wood either because it touches the ground or through their mud tubes. According to the EPA and the University of California, these are the things that most often open the way for them:

• Wood in contact with soil, like a door frame on a ground floor, a wooden garden fence, or formwork timber left buried in the ground after construction.
• Moisture next to the foundation: a pipe dripping inside the wall, a roof drainpipe emptying beside the house, or a garden watered right up to the wall.
• Cracks in the foundation and gaps around the pipes entering the house, which let them pass from the soil to the inside.
• A woodpile, old timber or clutter leaning against an outside wall.
• Plaster that reaches down to the soil, because it hides the tubes climbing the foundation.

Termites in Egypt

A survey by researchers from the Department of Entomology at the Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, presented at a conference in London in 1973, reported that termites had become one of the most important pests in both Lower and Upper Egypt, damaging many houses and buildings. Of the two most damaging species it found, one was more widespread in Lower Egypt and had reached Borg El Arab and Matrouh. The other was found mainly in Upper Egypt and in the oases on the edges of the desert, and the areas worst hit by it were in Faiyum, Minya, Aswan, Kharga and Dakhla.

The study is old, but the causes of infestation it recorded still exist in many villages: houses built of mud brick, crops and straw stored on rooftops, straw left for months on the threshing floor, dry branches left lying under trees, and fences made of mud brick and palm fronds. In cities we pay more attention to moisture and to wood near the ground on ground floors and in villas. Inspection and treatment details are on our termite treatment page.

Are woodworm and termites harmful to people?

Not directly, in most cases. A University of Florida reference confirms that wood-boring beetles don’t harm people or bite; their damage is all to wood. The references we used treat termites as a problem for wood and buildings and don’t mention them as disease carriers. The real risks are weakened load-bearing wood and the methods people try at home.

Itching after handling old wood?

There’s one rare case worth knowing about. A very small type of mite, about 0.2 mm long, feeds on the larvae of insects living in wood, furniture included, and in straw and grain. If you handle an infested piece or take apart wood with larvae in it, this mite can bite you. The bite itself doesn’t hurt, but 10 to 20 hours later an itch starts that can be intense, and the redness around the bite may spread. The National Capital Poison Center in the US says these skin changes usually clear up within a few weeks, and that heavy scratching can lead to a bacterial skin infection.

The bigger danger: pesticides and kerosene indoors

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s page on termites warns that many termite pesticides are highly toxic, and that a barrier applied the wrong way can contaminate the house and nearby water wells while still failing to protect against termites. The same logic applies to injecting kerosene, gasoline or paint thinner into a wardrobe or a door inside an apartment. These are flammable liquids, and in a bedroom or a child’s room that risk isn’t worth taking for a piece of wood.

Woodworm treatment: injection, freezing, and when to replace the piece

Woodworm treatment has to reach the larva inside its tunnels, not the surface. A small piece can go in the freezer. A large or fixed piece gets injected through its holes, and its bare wood gets treated. A piece that has gone weak should be replaced, along with whatever is touching it.

First, make sure it’s active

Woodworm eats slowly, so the University of Kentucky’s view is that many cases don’t need anything done right away. Do the powder-and-holes test described above first. If no fresh powder appears after a few weeks in the active season, you may be about to treat old holes the woodworm left long ago.

Small pieces: the freezer

Picture frames, wooden boxes, ornaments, wooden toys and wooden spoons can be treated without any chemical at all. According to the University of Kentucky, freezing at -18°C for 3 to 7 days kills woodworm in small pieces, and the University of California specifies at least 72 hours, longer if the wood is thicker than 5 cm. Check that your freezer gets that cold, seal the piece in a plastic bag before it goes in, and let it warm up inside the bag after you take it out so moisture doesn’t condense on it.

Heat also kills every stage of woodworm: 52 to 60°C for several hours in lumber drying kilns, or 49 to 57°C for up to 24 hours in dedicated treatment chambers. That’s a job for workshops and factories, not your kitchen oven, and the University of California rules out this method for pieces with fabric or paint on them.

Large and fixed pieces: injection and treating bare wood

A big wardrobe, a door, a door frame, a wooden ceiling or a parquet floor won’t fit in a freezer. Here the treatment goes into the wood itself. Products applied to the surface have to soak in to reach the larva, and the University of California points out that painted or varnished wood can’t be treated by spraying the surface. This is where a lot of people go wrong: they spray over the varnish, the product stops there, and the larva keeps eating underneath.

That’s why our woodworm treatment injects the product into the holes themselves so it reaches the tunnels, and treats bare surfaces with no varnish, such as the back of a wardrobe, the bottoms of drawers and the wood inside a ceiling. Nothing is sprayed into the air of the room.

When should the piece be replaced instead of treated?

Situation	Usually the better option
A small piece you can move, like a picture frame, a box or a small chair	Freezing
A wardrobe, china cabinet or door that matters to you, with wood that is still solid	Injecting the holes and treating the bare wood
A parquet board, door frame or chair leg that has been eaten through	Replacing it along with the boards touching it
A ceiling beam that carries weight and has many holes	A carpenter checks its strength before any treatment

When you replace infested wood, the University of Kentucky advises taking out the boards next to it as well, and if you plan to refinish a parquet floor, waiting at least 6 months first. For large infestations in enclosed spaces you can’t reach, there is fumigation, but the same reference describes it as costly and extreme, and the people living there have to leave for about 3 days. In every case, treatment stops the woodworm but doesn’t bring back the wood it has already eaten, so the call on strength belongs to a carpenter.

After treatment

The beetle lays its eggs only in bare wood: in pores, in cracks and in old exit holes. So once the activity seems to have stopped, fill the holes with wood filler and coat bare surfaces with varnish, paint or wax. That closes the door to a new infestation in the same piece.

Termite treatment and control: soil barriers and bait

Termites that come from the soil are treated by cutting their route from the soil into the building. That means a liquid barrier in the soil around the foundation, bait stations the termites carry back to the colony, or both together. Spraying the wood on its own kills only the termites already in it, and the colony keeps sending more.

Why isn’t spraying the wood enough?

The colony lives in the soil, and according to the University of California it can be far below the surface. To the colony, the wood is a food source, and the workers travel back and forth between the two. The US EPA draws a line between a product that kills termites and a product that protects the building, because the first kind only kills the termites it touches.

A liquid barrier in the soil

The technician puts a product made for termites into the soil around the foundation, either by digging beside the wall or by injecting it through the tiles and slabs right next to the building. The barrier stops termites from getting in and usually kills the ones already inside as well. The University of Kentucky describes this method as usually the more dependable one on the first attempt, but it takes large quantities of product, measured in hundreds of gallons for a single house, plus drilling through the floors and paving around it.

Bait stations

The bait is a material containing cellulose, the stuff termites feed on, combined with a slow-acting ingredient. It goes into plastic stations set in the ground around the house, and sometimes indoors on top of an active tube. The workers eat it, carry it back to the colony and share it with the rest, so the numbers drop gradually. There’s no digging and no soil brought indoors, and it works in places where a barrier is hard to put in.

It does take patience. According to the University of Kentucky, termites can take weeks or months to find the stations, and more months before the activity is under control. The University of California fact sheet stretches that to months or even years, with the stations checked throughout. So if anyone tells you bait will solve the problem in a week, ask them where that figure comes from.

Drywood termites

The kind that lives entirely inside wood, without reaching the soil, isn’t treated with a soil barrier. For this one the University of California lists injecting a product into the galleries inside the infested wood, or replacing the wood. If the infestation has spread through the whole building, it may need whole-structure fumigation.

Replacing wood after treatment

Wood that has been hollowed out and weakened, like a door threshold or a cupboard leg, is best replaced after the source has been treated, and the new piece should be fitted so it doesn’t touch the soil. Replacing the wood without treating the source just gives the termites fresh wood to eat.

Home remedies for woodworm and termites: what works?

Home methods help in a few situations: freezing small pieces, lowering the humidity for booklice, and checking and monitoring for any of these insects. Kerosene injections, vinegar, garlic, salt and bug spray mostly stop at the surface, and some of them are dangerous.

Method	Used against	Does it work?	Why
Freezer at -18°C for 3 to 7 days	Woodworm in small pieces	Yes	The cold reaches the core of the piece if you give it enough time
Lowering the humidity below 50%	Booklice	Yes	They live on mold, and mold needs moisture
Injecting kerosene, gasoline or paint thinner into the holes	Woodworm	Dangerous	Flammable liquids inside an apartment, and none of the references we used recommends them
Wiping the wood with vinegar	Woodworm	No	It stays on the surface while the larva is inside the tunnels
Garlic and salt on the holes	Woodworm	No evidence	No scientific reference says they reach the larva
Bug spray on the wood or the tube	Termites	Kills only what it touches	The colony is in the soil, and the workers keep coming
Termite bait from a shop	Termites	Rarely	According to the University of Kentucky, it rarely ends an existing infestation
Varnish or paint over infested wood	Woodworm	Only prevents a new infestation	The larvae inside carry on, and the coating blocks the treatment
Breaking open mud tubes	Termites	For inspection only	It shows you whether workers are there, but it doesn’t reach the colony

As for termites, the University of California fact sheet is clear: do-it-yourself termite pesticides are generally not effective. What a homeowner can do by hand is replace damaged wood and fix moisture problems and wood that touches the soil. That counts for a lot, because repairing a dripping pipe removes one of the causes of the infestation, and a can of bug spray doesn’t.

Can you get rid of woodworm and termites permanently?

With woodworm, a piece that has been treated, coated and had its holes filled is unlikely to be infested again, because the beetle lays its eggs only in bare wood. That doesn’t stop a newly infested piece coming into the house with used furniture, though, and it doesn’t stop the damp-loving type from returning if the ceiling still leaks.

Kiln drying and fumigation both kill woodworm, but the University of California notes that neither one protects the wood from a new infestation afterward.

With termites the answer is harder. The colony is in the soil, and another colony can move in from the same ground years later. A barrier or bait protects the building for as long as it keeps working, which is why the University of California recommends a professional inspection every 3 to 5 years. So if anyone tells you “we’ll wipe them out and they’ll never come back,” ask them two questions. How will you know the activity has stopped? And what will you do if a new tube appears a year from now?

Preventing woodworm and termites: furniture, doors, ceilings and parquet

The most important step against woodworm is checking any wood before it comes into the house and coating bare wood. Against termites, it’s keeping wood away from soil and moisture. The University of California considers woodworm hard to control once an infestation has started, so prevention is the most effective approach.

Furniture and secondhand pieces

• Before you buy a used chair, china cabinet or picture frame, turn it over and look at the back, the legs and the bottoms of the drawers for holes or powder.
• Bare surfaces without varnish, like the back of a wardrobe or the bottom of a drawer, are where the beetle lays its eggs. Coat them with varnish, paint or wax.
• Move a wooden wardrobe slightly away from any wall with a leak, especially a bathroom or kitchen wall.
• Put any small piece you’re unsure about in the freezer before it goes near the rest of your furniture.

Doors and door frames

On a ground floor, a door frame that touches the floor, or plaster that reaches down to the soil, can become a route for termites. The University of California advises keeping the wood in a building’s substructure at least 30 cm above the soil. Fix any leak near the bathroom or kitchen door quickly, because wet wood attracts termites and the damp-loving type of woodworm.

Wooden ceilings, storage lofts and rooftops

• Beams and wooden ceilings in old houses are where the damp-loving type does best. Fix any roof leak before the wood soaks up the water.
• A closed storage loft needs to be opened and aired from time to time, and the boxes inside shouldn’t sit directly on the wood.
• Don’t store firewood, straw or old timber on the roof, and don’t leave it leaning against an outside wall.

Parquet and new wood

The fine-powder type prefers new hardwood, so parquet and new doors are most at risk in their first years. Inspect the boards before they’re laid and reject any with holes or powder. Kiln drying at the factory kills any woodworm inside the wood, but it doesn’t protect it from a new infestation later, so the finish you apply after installation is what stops beetles laying eggs in it. If you’re renovating an old apartment, check the old wood that’s staying before you fit new wood next to it.

Around the house (villas and ground floors)

• Fill cracks in the foundation and the gaps around incoming pipes with cement or a sealant.
• Keep gutter and garden water away from the foundation, and don’t plant trees or shrubs right up against the wall or the wood.
• Remove tree stumps, buried formwork timber and woodpiles from next to the house.
• If the building has a lot of wood close to the ground, have a professional termite inspection every 3 to 5 years.

For books and paper, keep the humidity in the bookcase or built-in cupboard below 50%, and don’t store books or boxes on the floor of a damp basement.

When do you need a woodworm or termite control company?

Call a pest control company if you see any sign of termites inside the house, or if woodworm is still active in fixed wood that can’t go in a freezer. These are the situations where it makes sense to bring in a professional rather than keep trying things yourself:

• You found a mud tube on the foundation or a wall, or shed wings by a window inside the house.
• You marked the woodworm holes and cleaned up the powder, and a few weeks later you found fresh powder or a new hole.
• The woodworm is in a ceiling, a beam, the parquet or a door frame, or in more than one piece.
• The wood sounds hollow, or a screwdriver went into it easily.
• You’re not sure whether it’s woodworm, termites or booklice, and a wrong diagnosis means paying for treatment aimed at the wrong place.
• You’re buying or renovating an old house with a lot of wood, or you run a hotel, a restaurant, a furniture showroom or a warehouse with wood and cardboard in it.

With termites, take your time choosing. The University of Kentucky reassures homeowners that a few extra days or weeks usually don’t add much damage, and warns against anyone who pressures you to sign the same day with a special offer or scare tactics. The EPA advises getting a second opinion if someone knocks on your door offering an inspection you didn’t ask for. But if those weeks turn into months and years, the wood keeps being eaten from the inside where you can’t see it.

What to send on WhatsApp before the visit

• A close-up photo of the holes, the tube or the wings, with a coin or a pen next to them to show the size.
• A photo of the powder on a sheet of white paper.
• What the piece is, whether it’s painted or bare, and how long you’ve had it.
• Which floor you’re on, and whether there’s a garden, a basement or a water leak nearby.

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